Ashby Pate
| R. Ashby Pate | |
|---|---|
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| Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Palau | |
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In office 2013–2016 |
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| Appointed by | President Johnson Toribiong |
| Preceded by | Associate Justice Alexandra Foster |
| Personal details | |
| Born | March 20, 1978 Birmingham, Alabama |
| Alma mater |
University of Colorado Boulder Samford University University of East Anglia |
R. Ashby Pate (born 20 March 1978) is an American lawyer with the law firm of Lightfoot, Franklin & White LLC and a former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Palau.
As one of four justices on the Republic’s highest court, Pate presided over several hundred civil and criminal cases as a trial judge and served as a panelist on over 40 civil and criminal appeals. Appointed to the Court at the age of 34 by President Johnson Toribiong, Pate was the youngest justice in the island nation’s history.
In 2014, Pate’s order granting a writ of habeas corpus in In re Angelino, which condemned the solitary confinement system in Palau’s only correctional facility, garnered attention in the Asia-Pacific region and among noted international human rights advocates as "an impressive national court application of international human rights norms." Justice Pate's order resulted in significant structural improvements to the Koror Jail and the effective end to the practice of solitary confinement in the Republic.
In 2009, while serving as Senior Court Counsel for the Supreme Court, Justice Pate also helped establish Palau's first jury trial system, contributing to its enabling legislation and authoring Palau's first jury trial rules and juror handbook.
After law school, Pate served as a Law Clerk to U. W. Clemon of the United States District Court, Northern District of Alabama, a prominent civil rights leader and Alabama's first African-American federal judge. In 2009, Pate served as Senior Court Counsel to Chief Justice Arthur Ngiraklsong of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Palau, where he helped establish Palau's first jury trial system.
Prior to his judicial appointment, Pate practiced for several years at the firm of Lightfoot Franklin & White, in Birmingham, Alabama, with a focus on complex class actions and mass torts, international disputes, and NCAA compliance investigations. During his time in practice, he was voted a 2013 Top International Law Attorney by Birmingham Magazine’s Peer Reviewed Survey of over 2,000 Alabama Lawyers.
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